Moroccan Christians celebrate Christmas in secret By Mouhsine El-Hassouni


dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday December 13, 2006

By Mouhsine El-Hassouni, Rabat- "I discovered Christianity by accident," a young Moroccan woman says. "I found a Bible on my night table in a French hotel room, and what I read appealed to me. On the same trip, I met a Moroccan Christian, and we had a long discussion."

The woman, who wants to remain anonymous and whom we'll call Lina, has converted to Christianity.

But like hundreds of her sisters and brothers in faith, she has to practise her religion secretly in Muslim Morocco.

At the moment, Moroccan Christians are preparing to celebrate Christmas clandestinely at home, possibly in the presence of a pastor who also has to hide his faith.

"We have to live as if we were criminals," says a young Christian woman from Casablanca. People who reveal their conversion risk being banished by their families and marginalized by their communities.

The number of Moroccan Christians is impossible to determine exactly, but one thing seems certain: practically all of them are protestants.

"Protestantism is an individual choice, while one becomes a Catholic at birth," a convert called Sofia says.

The Christians are divided between those who perform their rites in Arabic and those who do so in French. The two groups have little contact with each other.

Some of the Christians discovered their faith accidentally, while others have been converted by churches, mostly Baptists from the United States, who send dozens of missionaries annually to Morocco.

The churches also use websites and donate tens of thousands of dollars annually to associations and people spreading their doctrine.

"Some people may convert that way, but I have never been offered money in exchange for conversion," Sofia says. "The authorities need to urgently open a dialogue with the country's Christians in order to prevent people from joining sects," she adds.

Converts are baptized secretly in Morocco's churches, which are reserved for foreigners.

Converts like Sofia stress that they do not want their faith to offend Moroccan society or Islam. Moroccan law does not prohibit conversions to other religions, although only Judaism is recognized officially in addition to Islam.

The Moroccan authorities are aware of the Christians' activities, and appear to have become more tolerant of them.

"Earlier, police used to call us for questioning and watch us closely, almost harassing us," Lina explains. "Now it feels as if they wanted to protect us from aggressions by (Muslim) fanatics."

Lina does not, however, know of any Christian who have been attacked or threatened.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency